Monday, March 29, 2010

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turbopropaircraft produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation (now the Beechcraft Division of Hawker Beechcraft). The King Air line comprises a number of model series that fall into two families: the Model 90 series, Model 100 series (these models comprising the King Air family), Model 200 series and Model 300 series.[2][3][4] The latter two models were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family, but the "Super" was dropped in 1996.[5]

The Super King Air family has been in continuous production since 1974,[6] the longest production run of any civilian turboprop aircraft in its class. It has outlasted all of its previous competitors and as of 2009 the only other aircraft in its class is the Piaggio Avanti.[1][5] As of December 2009, the B200, B200GT and the larger B300 are the production models.[6] Special mission derivative versions of these models are also available for order.[1][6]

F/A-18 Hornet provided the baseline design for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, a larger, evolutionary redesign of the F/A-18. Compared to the Hornet, the Super Hornet is larger, heavier and has improved range and payload capability. The F/A-18E/F was originally proposed as an alternative to a completely new aircraft to replace existing dedicated attack aircraft such as the A-6. The larger variant was also directed to replace the aging F-14 Tomcat, thus serving a complementary role with Hornets in the U.S. Navy, and serving a wider range of roles including refueling tanker, and electronic jamming platform.[4]

The Sukhoi Su-30 (NATO reporting name Flanker-C) is a twin-engine, multi-role military aircraft developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a two-seat, dual-role fighter for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface deep interdiction missions. The Su-30 was introduced into operational service in 1996.

The aircraft is a modernised version of the Su-27UB and has several variants. The Su-30K and Su-30MK series have had commercial success. The variants are manufactured by competing organizations: KnAAPO and the IRKUT Corporation, both of which come under the Sukhoi group's umbrella. KnAAPO manufactures the Su-30MKK and the Su-30MK2, which were designed for and sold to China and later Indonesia. Irkut makes the long-range, multi-role Su-30MK series. The series includes the Su-30MKI developed for the Indian Air Force and its derivatives, the MKM, MKA and MKV for Malaysia, Algeria and Venezuela respectively.